The Google Venice Update – Another Nail in the IYP Coffin?

Linda Buquet has an interesting read on the recent Google Venice Update, which among other things appears to have boosted local businesses’ ability to rank in the organic, non-Places results:

“If my research is right and 75% of searches are for “cityless keywords” then this is a huge opportunity that didn’t exist before – to get your clients on page one EVEN IF they are outside the proximity radius, or have dupe problems or some other problem and can’t rank in Places. Now you have a shot at getting them in the local ORGANIC results.

Many of us started off with or used to primarily focus on Google Places. But now with blended results I assume most of us are focusing a lot more on organic SEO to help get high blended rankings. However lately we are faced with changes like the reduced local footprint (Some 7 packs now only showing 3 listings). Additionally many have noticed local queries that no longer show map based results at all – ONLY organic. So Venice presents more opportunities to get your client to rank on page one even IF you can’t get them in the local maps results.”

Or to put it another way, if Linda’s research is right, Venice presents less opportunities to get your local directory site to rank on page one because you can’t get them in the local maps results and you’re now being crowded out of the organic results by local businesses.

BTW check out the 1:52 mark in the video